Elephant kills man in Liwonde National Park

An innocent pedal cyclist has been killed by an elephant in Liwonde National Park.

Police in Liwonde have confirmed of the development in a statement made available to faceofmalawi and the deceased has been identified as Daitoni Elephant (67) of Village Sanja in Sub Traditional Authority Chiunda in Mangochi.

The incident occurred on November 2, 2018 at about 1130Hrs at Liwonde national park.

According to police investigations, the deceased in the early hours of November 2, 2018 left his house to Malombe trading centre on a pedal bicycle passing through Liwonde national park.

“At around 1100Hrs deceased thought of cycling back to his house passing the same national park.

“As he was passing the park deceased suddenly met five elephants at the corner of the road,” reads in part the police report.

Added the report: “Sensing danger deceased immediately stopped, jumped down from the bicycle and run for his dear life.

“One of the five elephants run after him, caught with its trunk and thrashed him to a nearby tree where he died on the spot.”

Autopsy conducted at Malombe health facility indicate that death was due to internal bleeding.

Meanwhile police in the district is advising road users to make sure that the earth road that passes through Liwonde national park is free from dangerous animals before use to avoid reoccurrence of similar incident.